Swamiji says settle on a Personal Deity for the spiritual journey.
Swamiji describes how Swami Brahmananda [a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, and described by Master himself, as his 'eternal companion'] came to God-realisation.
If we are the same Krishna that we see elsewhere, who is there to be afraid of, who to hate, who to love?
Swamiji quotes Swami Vivekananda as saying the way to start the process of spiritual growth, is to ensure that at least one form of the thousands in the universe, is 'supremely divine to you.' That's the secret of Ishta [Ishta Deva – personal Deity or Chosen Ideal] worship. Out of millions of forms, at least one is supremely divine to you. Swamiji goes into depth on the topic.
He explains how we should not fear death. That it's a natural process, simply the obverse and reverse of the same coin, and goes on to explain the 'God-mad' nature of Paramahamsas.
Swamiji relates a fun story about Lord Yama getting upset to the point of threatening curses, because the Sapta Rishis didn't prostrate to him – to the amusement of Lord Shiva. It's a telling story. Please listen to it.
Lila [God's divine 'play'] and Nitya [a term coined by Sri Ramakrishna himself] as described by Sri Ramakrishna, now enter the discussion. Nitya is the Eternal – the Absolute says Swamiji. In the one [Lila] names and forms will apparently change, but in the other [Nitya] nothing changes. Clay being used to make various vessels is the analogy. The vessels are different, but the clay is the constant.
Swamiji pulls the homily together by describing how one second of forgetfulness of God can lead to fear. Doing sadhana [spiritual practise] will intensify our longing for God. And when that longing intensifies the love, then the knowledge will come. And when the knowledge comes, we will be free.
To absorb these words of wisdom, please click on the link below. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration: 10:12
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Dear Devotee, if we use the term 'He or he', when referring to Swamiji, it's not impolite or disrespectful. It's to minimise the repetitiveness of saying or writing 'Swamiji' too many times.
The original audio recordings of these posts were made by close Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa and Swami Shivapadananda devotee, Mother Radha. The audio editing and noise reduction of the original 1970s-onwards tapes, has been lovingly engineered, over many years, by her son and our dear gurubhai, Brother Tim. May Sri Ramakrishna and Swamiji bless them both.
Admin tip: Underlined words are links. If you click on them, they'll take you to an explanation of the particular word or term. [In these overviews, Admin comments are typically in a smaller green font, and square bracketed, like this statement.]
Dear reader, if you spot typos or or other errors, please feel free to email the site admin on info@imbizo.com with your suggested correction/s.
Context: As always, care should be taken to remember that what Swamiji was saying, was often very specific to the needs of people with him at the time. Please bear this in mind.
Links to our Guru Parampara (spiritual lineage) organisations, which will broaden your knowledge base: Ramakrishna Math and Mission and our alma maters, the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa and the Sri Sarada Devi Ashram in Durban. The Ramakrishna Centre of Johannesburg is also active in Gauteng province in South Africa.
There are various publications [The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna etc.] which you can download at no charge, from the Ramakrishna Centre of SA website page, HERE.
The picture in this post was borrowed from the 'Children of Swami Shivapadananda' Facebook site, to be found here.